The12thMonkey •
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Currently replaying Metroid Prime on Dolphin - this video was the shove I needed to get Ishiiruka. Thanks very much, the shader cache stuttering was a gripe, but now it's just excellent.
I'm very impressed by the poly counts information. No wonder it still looks very nice, even 14 years on. Reply+1

On the PS3 front, the writing has been on the wall for a little while. In the last patch, specific additions to the UI were excluded from the PS3 update. The jukebox furniture that can be added to in game housing had to load a mono channel version of the songs and fake a surround set up due to hitting the top end of the 256mb RAM limit. So, sad though it is to see the PS3 bowing out, it has been coming. Reply0

Nice piece, and it got me thinking that I would have liked to see Ferdinand and Isabella as a pair of joint leaders of Spain for Civ 6 - they might be able to have bonuses on shifting their capital about, since their big thing was peripatetic government. Reply+1

I began my mighty quest for galactic supremacy last night, and I've been tucked away in the dead end of one of the spiral arms of the galaxy, with spiritualist pacifists between me and the ocean of space.
They are not entirely repulsive cockroach things, so I feel an alliance may be in order.

I'm loving it so far, but the only thing I can't decide on is whether I want a full Star Trek conversion first, or a full Culture conversion... Reply+2

I had a go on this today at work. I wouldn't pay 800 quid for it, but there was no response lag to speak of, and the demos were quite engaging - the most fun was actually the painting one (Tilt Brush), because you could thread lines of colour through each other and twist them together.
However, it gave me the hope that (coupled with the price point of the PS4 effort) there might be enough mileage to go to a second generation with lower prices. Reply+3

I had to move my stuff out of my parent's loft last year because they were moving, and I found all my old game boxes. Sadly, I had no space for the cardboard, but I am now the proud owner of two shoeboxes full of game manuals, from Command & Conquer to Civilization II, via Age of Empires II and Alpha Centauri. That AC one has a twenty-odd page interview at the back! Going over all the sci-fi influences the designers used.

@Widge Pretty much my thoughts, although some of the tonal elements are what allow for storyline impact.

It looks like a riff on FF7, which is what I expected. A straight up HD, that you're trying to market to today's audience, would probably tank very hard. Nostalgia will only bring so many people. Reply0

I watched it this morning, and thought it was preatty good. I'd take one issue with the article, though.

What's really disappointing is that this episode needs to exist.

I'd say it was disappointing, yes, but it is largely confined to the first twenty minutes of the program, and the remaining forty are down into the other areas of research you mentioned, which were very interesting and maybe it would have been nice if they could have found more to talk about and fill the whole hour with that. Reply+1

I've patched in the translation to my copy and I've just got as far as the 64th floor in the Shin-Ra building. Very impressed with the work; Aeris (and you can simply rename her that if you want, which I did) comes over as much more street smart and Tifa's misgivings are a little clearer. Only line I genuinely missed was Cloud's "Let's bust on in!" at the start of the attack on the Shin-Ra building, but that's probably because I drew a crappy picture of Cloud and co standing at the foot of the tower with that quote written over the top yonks ago...

Oh, and some of the updated models that come with the Reunion package are pretty good. Shame it's not across the board, though. Reply+7

Played FFXI from US launch (on import) all the way through to the start of FFXIV 1.0. Got a 10gig screenshot directory of memories from Vana'diel (and considering that most of them a jpegs and at most 1440x900, that's a lot of pictures). I guess it had to come to an end eventually, but it's nice to know it'll still be ticking along on PC.

I think, however, that the best validation of what was one of SE's greatest and most interesting worlds would be to see a main series single player FF set in Vana'diel. Reply+2

I played 4 hours of this on LAN last night. I think the review is a touch harsh compared with the experience we all had. None of us minded falling back on old fantasy trope environments - it all fit with the idea of an action endurance event. Also, the fixed angle was quite useful, for us.
My laptop was struggling a bit, even with the settings down, so it was better to be able to watch the best PC attached to the TV running at 60fps, since pretty much the whole interface was identical on each screen, which gave echoes on FF Crystal Chronicles. Reply+7

I think I'd rather be slow, too. But I still get quite a kick out of my own 100% Metroid Prime best, which was a shade over nine hours. That relied on things like Omega Pirate spawning easy stuff every time he changed forms... amongst other thing.

But there's a nice feeling from working out your route through that map and coming away feeling like you've absolutely aced it. Reply0

As others have said, strategy tends to get the best out of the expansion. A one shot blast through some new story doesn't really cut it (which is pretty much all you can say about the story DLC for things like Dragon Age and Mass Effect, fun though some of them were; if enough of the underlying systems have been tweaked, or they've found a new way to challenge your old tactics, then it's pretty much as good as a new game.

I personally loved the Firestorm expansion to C&C Tiberium Sun, and Brave New World is still dragging me back every few weeks for another (dose of) crack. Reply+3

I was a little disappointed to hear that the sound track for FFX-2 got no remix. The changes made to the FFX OST were all pretty excellent, with tracks I used to dislike now real favourites.

However, it felt a little jarring to go to FFX-2 and find not quite as much effort had been put in. Though, I'm now coming to the conclusion that in the 2 years between the two original releases, the capabilities of the PS2 were much closer to being reached. There's a real feel that X-2 is a fair bit closer to what we might expect these days from an RPG (in terms of technical ability; even the simple overlapping of character abilities in battle and the tempo feel like what might at the time have been called "next-gen"). I think they looked at it and thought there wasn't a whole lot that needed doing.

Also, although both games are hamstrung by average VA, there are moments of greatness, but lots of nonsense as well. When Luzzu recalls Chappu's reasons for fighting Sin, it just works. Whenever Tidus talks about his old man, you want to punch him. Reply+1

Moments and music from parts of the first three Silent Hill games still give me goosebumps to this day. When I picked up my copy of SH2 on release day, there was a threatening sort of November storm about - the kind that make it look like it's on the cusp of twilight for the entire day. There are very few moments in life when you have such a clear recollection of how the day was, but the convergence of weather and creepiest game I'd ever played, made it stick in my mind.

Particular goosebump-casuing moments:The moment when you hear your radio getting louder, and you're right outside the door you know you need to go through, but you creep forward to stare through the bars only to find Pyramid Head staring right back at you.
Or the room with the mirror in Silent Hill 3 and what happens to Heather's reflection.
And to even hear the music that plays when Lisa realises she is dead... Reply+2

Currently playing a Sunday night Pathfinder quest, which is pretty cool. All hail Arch Undercleric and Chief Assistant to the Assistant Chief, Melia Flaxenwench!

Our group has done 4th Ed D&D, Star Wars, D&D Next and a bunch of other stuff, mostly from 3.5 or derived rule sets. I was coaxed into joining about 4 years ago now, and it's a vast improvement over running Dynamis groups in FF11 which is what I was doing with my Sunday nights. Reply+3

Since these weekly round ups started appearing, I've had to steadily devote time of USGamer. It's pretty well done, really. Really glad to see some sites still remember that FFXIV actually exists and is doing rather well. Reply+1